Pelé dies, the only footballer who won 3 World Cups (and who only needed to “play on the Moon”)

Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Pelé’ died this Thursday, December 29 at the age of 82 after a long fight against cancer. The soccer legend was admitted last Tuesday, November 29, after presenting generalized swelling and due to the concern of the doctors, who ended up interrupting the chemotherapy treatment by not responding to it and providing palliative care. After more than a month being hospitalized and his health worsening this Christmas, he has finally died in a hospital in Sao Paulo.

This is one of the biggest losses ever suffered by the most popular sport on the planet.

Since he dazzled everyone at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden at just 17 years old, Pelé became an icon of soccer’s magic and global reach, and he remained so until his last days, although his life was not without controversy either. .

“Sometimes I joke that I only needed to go to the Moon, I needed to play on the Moon,” he said in a message to remember the 50th anniversary of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, the last one he played and won.